Puritans Fought for Social Reform

Updated April 1, 2002 12:01 a.m. ET

A March 21 Letter to the Editor gives us the consummate oxymoron "puritanical terrorist killer." It's time we recollected some facts about the much-maligned Puritans, who were responsible for representative government in America (e.g., Connecticut's Fundamental Agreement), and whose descendants were in the forefront of many social reforms instituted in the U.S., from the abolition of slavery to humane treatment of the mentally ill.

Puritans put into writing protection for women as early as 1641, through a statute...